In the News: The Global Burden of Obesity

As startling as this may sound, obesity may be as much of a threat to us as global warming and bird flu, according to Paul Zimmet, an Australian diabetes researcher, speaking at the 10th International Congress of Obesity in Sydney, Australia. The World Health Organization puts the number of overweight adults worldwide at more than one billion, 300 million of whom are obese. The number of overweight children is in excess of 155 million. The enormous cost of treating obesity-related health problems, which range from high blood pressure to diabetes to cardiovascular disease, which costs billions of dollars in the United States, Britain and Australia alone, threatens to overwhelm the world’s healthcare systems.

Researchers gathered at the obesity conference see the root of the problem as more complex than simply a lack of willpower and a sedentary lifestyle, though overeating and lack of exercise obviously play a large part. They also point to a number of hereditary and environmental factors that interfere with our natural metabolism. With so many high-calorie, nutrient-poor processed foods filled with fat, sugars and starches, often with crucial vitamins and minerals stripped out, we are, paradoxically, "starving" our bodies, causing them to store fat as a defense mechanism.